When I first heard about upside down cakes, I paused for a second and thought: don’t I flip all the cakes upside down after it comes out of the oven? Yes, we do invert all the cakes after it has baked well and then we might top the cake with frosting or whipping cream to make it look even more prettier. But, when you are making the real upside down cake you will be layering the pan with a few things mostly fruits, nuts etc before you pour the batter into the pan. This way when you turn over the cake, you will already have a decorative topping and you can indulge in it right away.

Yesterday was one of my friend’s birthday and I wanted to surprise her. I couldn’t think of anything better than a cake to surprise her. I had to pretend till noon that I didn’t even know it was her birthday. After lunch, along with the other co-workers, we opened the cake, lighted the candles and called the birthday girl into the room. As soon as she entered we sang the birthday song so loud, she was literally shocked and surprised to see the cake. Her surprise look and excitement made me feel very happy. After the cake cutting, when it was time for tasting the cake, I kept my fingers crossed. When I heard the “Mmmm” coming out of my friends and when I myself did the “Mmmm” after taking a bite of it, I felt so relieved. It was such a delicious cake! Rich in chocolate flavor, very soft and moist inside and not too sweet. Everyone raved about it.

Recipe Courtesy: Gale Gand. I did make a few modifications to the original recipe like I only added 4 tbsp pf butter to coat the pan and baked the cake for 45 minutes.

A few tips for beginner bakers:

• When you crack eggs directly into the mixing bowl, make sure you don’t unknowingly put any small egg shells. It’s good to crack them into a separate bowl and then add to the mixture.
• Don’t pour the cake batter till the very top of the pan, always leave some space for the cake to rise, else the batter will spill over and the top of the cake won’t be even.
• Always preheat the oven to the temperature that’s called for.
• Do not open the oven now and then to see whether the cake has baked, I know it’s hard to wait till 45 minutes or so, by doing so will change the inside temperature of the oven and it might take more time to bake.
• To check if the cake has cooked well, insert a sharp knife or fork into the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean,  you can stop baking it.
• Most importantly, measurements are very important in cake baking, so don’t just eye ball any of the ingredients.

Chocolate Almond Upside-Down cake

Ingredients:

For the Caramel topping:

• Butter, unsalted and melted- 4 tbsp
• Brown sugar- 3/4 cup
• Honey- 1/4 cup
• Almonds thinly sliced, lightly toasted- 1 cup

For making cake:

• All purpose flour- 1 1/4 cups
• Cocoa powder- 1/2 cup
• Baking soda- 1 tsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Butter, unsalted and softened- 1/2 cup or 1 stick
• Sugar- 1 1/2 cups
• Eggs- 3, large
• Buttermilk- 1 cup
• Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Preparation:

Prepare the topping on the pan:

• Use a 10 inch round pan, grease the sides of the pan with 1 tbsp butter.
• Pour the melted 4 tbsp butter into the pan and swirl to coat the bottom.
• Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the melted butter, drizzle honey over the brown sugar.
• Top this evenly with toasted almonds. Keep the pan aside.

Making the batter:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together three times to make the cake extra light.
• Place the butter in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment ( I used the flat beater) and beat until smooth and fluffy.
• If you don’t have a stand mixer, use electric hand mixer instead.
• Add sugar and continue mixing.
• Add eggs, one at a time and mixing after each addition, mix till smooth, about 3 minutes.
• With the mixer on low speed, add a third of dry ingredients (flour/cocoa powder/baking soda and salt) and mix to combine.
• Add half of the buttermilk and continue mixing.
• Using a spatula clean the sides of the bowl.
• Add another third of the dry ingredients, mix and add the remaining buttermilk and almond extract, mix.
• Now, add the rest of the dry ingredients, mix until smooth.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan over the almond layer. Make sure the batter doesn’t fill till the top of the pan, leave some room for the cake to rise. (As you can see I poured the batter till the very top of the pan and I kept my fingers crossed praying that the batter doesn’t spill over, it didn’t spill over but it rose and spread to the sides of the pan)
• Bake for 45 minutes, insert a fork or sharp knife into the center of the cake, if it comes out clean, remove the cake form the oven. Else bake for a few more minutes keeping the pan on the upper rack.
• Run a knife around the edge of the pan, immediately invert the cake onto a platter, it will fall nicely onto the platter.
• If there is any almonds sticking onto the pan, remove using a spoon and top on to the cake.
• Allow the cake to cool down. cut into desired shapes and serve.
• Any leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator and can be served the next day.

This day, two years ago  in Chicago, I started this blog with the sole intention of keeping a track of and sharing my recipes with everyone. At that time I honestly never thought that I would come this far with 250 recipes and a fan page on Facebook. I owe big time to those people who constantly inspired me, supported me and encouraged me with all their heart. Most sincerely, my gratitude first and foremost goes to my dear mom and my darling hubby, then to all my readers/fans/well wishers/fellow bloggers/chefs; without you people I wouldn’t have reached this far.

Thanks a bunch to each and every food lover out there for your support.

Kitchen has been one of the places I love to hang out, inhaling the aroma of the spices, mesmerized by the colors and putting together all the flavors, at the end of all the cooking fun a platter with delicious food will be ready to indulge in.

When I first started off, for a few days I was skeptical whether I would be able to post at least one recipe/week. As days passed by, my Picasa album started to flood with food pictures and I had many word documents of the “tried”and “soon to try” recipes. Both cooking and blogging is relaxing to me and I find extreme pleasure while doing these two activities. I hope I’ll stick to this passion throughout my life and continue to share my recipes with everyone.

When I saw the pictures of Butterscotch Pecan cake on my Picasa, I knew that the recipe for this cake is going to be the apt post for the blog’s second anniversary. I had made this cake two months ago to surprise my friend on her birthday. Well, I did surprise her and she felt extremely happy for making her feel special on her big day.

I got this recipe from Martha Stewart’s website. Whenever I want to make a cake, I go to her website, most of the recipes have worked well for me.

For making the cake I followed the recipe without adding the rum, but for the butterscotch sauce I only made half the amount of what is mentioned, it was good enough to spread the top of each cake.  If you are making a three layer cake, you’ll be using all of the frosting. If you are making only 1 or 2 layered cakes, reduce the amount of ingredients accordingly.

I love butterscotch flavor, that’s the main reason why I picked this recipe. Loved the cake, butterscotch sauce and the frosting. While making the frosting and sauce you would feel that it’s going to be too sweet, believe me it wasn’t that sweet as it looks like. In fact the cream cheese in the frosting compensated the sweetness of the brown sugar. Also, do try with brown sugar only then you’ll get the butterscotch flavor. Pecans sprinkled over the cake did give a crunchy and nutty flavor to the cake. You could use any nuts if you prefer.

Butterscotch Pecan Cake:

Made for my friend’s birthday I reduced the candles to 12 to put a smile on her face, lol.

For making 3 cakes:

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil cooking spray, for pans
• All-purpose flour- 3 3/4 cups
• Baking powder- 1 1/4 teaspoons
• Baking soda- 3/4 teaspoon
• Coarse salt- 2 1/2 teaspoons
• Unsalted butter, softened- 10 ounces (2 1/2 sticks)
• Packed dark-brown sugar- 2 1/2 cups
• Eggs, room temperature- 4 large
• Pure vanilla extract- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon
• Buttermilk, room temperature- 1 1/4 cups

For making Butter scotch Sauce

I wonder if there is anyone who can possibly ignore this particular dessert. I can only hear them say ” more please”. It’s that delicious and everyone knows that. I had tried brownies from many pastry shops and restaurants, but was lacking the expertise to make this on my own. You can only wait for a while but not for a lifetime. That happened to me too, I couldn’t wait till I became an expert to make this. Last weekend, I got the feeling that I am good enough to bake this in my kitchen. When your mind tells something like this, no one can stop you.

When the brownies came out pretty good, I felt I shouldn’t have waited this long to make this. Anyway, it’s better late than never. Also, I ended up making a second batch of these as the first batch got over in the blink of an eye. I shared the brownies with my co-workers on Monday which also helped to beat the Monday blues.

As part of my husband’s gluten free diet, I had bought a pack of Clubhouse potato starch. On the back of the pack, there was a recipe for brownies. The recipe sounded so easy and good to me, hence I decided to give it a shot. The brownies came out pretty great in just 25 minutes of baking. You don’t need an electric mixer nor a stand mixer to make the batter, just a whisk will do all the magic.

Chocolate Brownies: Gluten Free

Ingredients:

• Chocolate squares, semi-sweet- 2 (2 oz/6 0g/each)
• Margarine or Butter- 1/3 cup
• Granulated sugar- 3/4 cup
• Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
• Eggs, large- 2
• Potato starch or potato flour- 1/2 cup (or use all purpose flour)
• Baking powder- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Almonds, chopped or any other nuts- 1/2 cup
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips- 1/2 cup

Preparation:

• In a saucepan, melt chocolate squares and margarine or butter together over low heat.
• Remove from heat, stir in sugar and keep aside.
• In a bowl, beat eggs using whisk, one at a time.
• Add: potato starch, baking powder, salt and chopped almonds.
• Combine well and let stand for 5 minutes.
• Grease a baking pan with butter and pour the batter into the pan.
• Garnish the batter with semi-sweet chocolate chips.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
• Bake the batter for 25 minutes.
• After 25 minutes, remove the brownies from the oven and allow it to cool down.
• Gently cut into squares or triangle shapes using a sharp knife.
• The outside of the brownies will be slightly crispy and soft on the inside.
  
• You could also chill it in the refrigerator for sometime.
• Enjoy!!!

Celebrating this year’s Diwali with this homemade easy dessert…

Diwali, “the festival of lights” is one of the famous Indian festivals. To me when I think of Diwali, two things come to my mind – firecrackers and sweets!

I cannot explain how nostalgic I feel right now. I have so many good memories associated with Diwali, especially when it comes to setting off firecrackers. I was so good at it. My neighborhood in India used to be highly energetic and enthusiastic during Diwali. We used to set off fire crackers till midnight and this was the only occasion when people never used to complain about the noise and the smoke from all the firecrackers. Not just children but also the elderly let loose and join the fun.

Another attraction of Diwali is the variety of sweets you could find in sweet stores. In most of the houses they make their own version of sweets.

For this Diwali, I made an easy Squash Halwa. You just need squash and very few ingredients to make this halwa, yet it would taste great.

Happy and safe Diwali to all my readers!

Squash Halwa Recipe

Ingredients:

• Acorn Squash- 1
• Milk- 1/4 cup
• Condensed milk- 1/2 can or 150 ml
• Saffron, strands (optional)- 1/2 tsp strands soaked in 1 tbsp milk
• Ghee- 4 tbsp
• Roasted Almonds, whole or chopped- 1/4 cup (roasted in 1/2 tbsp ghee)

Preparation:

• Peel the skin off the squash and dice it into medium size.

• In a non-stick cooking pan, cook the diced squash in water till it turns tender and well cooked.

• Drain the water from the cooked squash and put it back into the pan.
• Using a wooden spoon, mash the cooked squash without any lumps.

• Switch on the stove to medium heat and place the pan with the mashed squash over it.
• Add milk and combine well stirring constantly breaking any lumps present in it.
• Add the condensed milk to it and combine well stirring constantly.

• Pour 2 tbsp of ghee at this point and keep stirring.
• If you are adding saffron, add the soaked saffron to the mixture.
• Let it thicken and don’t forget to stir it.

• When the mixture is no more watery and has thickened, add 2 tbsp more of ghee.
• Keep stirring for a minute and remove from the heat.
• In a small pan, roast whole or chopped almonds in 1/2 tbsp ghee till it turns golden in color.

• Grease a platter with little ghee and spread the squash halwa onto the plate.
• Even out the halwa level using a flat spatula.
• Garnish the squash halwa with roasted almonds.
• Chill the halwa for an hour and serve.

Tips:

• You could tweak this recipe according to your needs.
• You could adjust the sweetness, amount of ghee added accordingly.
• Also add pistachios, raisins or other nuts for extra crunchiness.

Yes, Flan was the first dessert I’ve ever made when I was young and believe me I have never screwed up this dessert. I used to make this often and was served with high enthusiasm for almost all parties. What I love about this dessert: it’s such a humble dessert which calls for only 4 ingredients, it’s one of the easiest and the yummiest dessert that could be made in your kitchen with much ease.

Flan is a rich custard dessert topped with caramel layer and is made by steaming or baking. It originated from Europe.

Even though the recipe for flan calls for just milk, egg and sugar, the measurement of these ingredients could be changed according to your needs. Even I don’t have a precise measurement, each time I make it I vary the amount of milk, sugar and eggs accordingly. Some times I add more eggs, other times less eggs and so on. So, last time when I made flan I made sure to note down the measurements that I had used.

More eggs you add more rich it would get, from my experience 4 eggs are good enough. Also, you could make this with skim milk. I’ve seen people making flan by baking, but I prefer steam cooking as I have been using this method all these years.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Flan Recipe

Ingredients:

• Milk, Skim or Whole- 1 1/2 cups
• Eggs – 4
• Sugar – 1/2 cup or according to your needs
• Whole cardamom smashed (optional) – 2
• Vanilla essence (optional) – 1 tsp

For making Caramel:

• Sugar- 1/2 cup
• Water- 1/8 cup

Preparation:

• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until smooth.

• Combine milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla essence together.
• Add smashed whole cardamom into the mixture and keep aside.

Making Caramelized Sugar:

• In a non-stick cooking pan, melt sugar and water by stirring constantly until the sugar starts to turn light brown in color.

• Remove the pan from the stove.
• Have a glass bowl or ramekins or stainless steel plate ready.
• Immediately pour the caramel into the glass bowl or to each ramekin to form the bottom layer, let it stand for a while until it sets.

• Over the caramel layer, pour the prepared milk and egg mixture.
• Cover the bowl with an aluminum foil and keep aside.

How to Steam cook the flan:

• Add 1 1/2 cups of water into a wide non-stick cooking pan or pot.
• Place the pot over medium heat.
• Place the bowl with the mixture covered with aluminum foil over the water.
• Cover the pot with its lid and let it steam cook for 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes, remove the pot from the heat, let it cool down a bit.
• Carefully take out the glass bowl with the flan from the pot. Wear oven gloves as the bowl would be very hot.
• Remove the aluminum foil and let it cool down for few minutes.

How to plate:

• Run a knife through the sides of the flan in the bowl.

• Cover the bowl containing the flan with a plate.
• Gently invert the plate holding onto the bowl.
• Flan will fall onto the plate  and now you will have the caramel layer facing up.
• Chill the flan for an hour in the refrigerator.
• Using a knife, cut the flan in whatever shape you want.
• Indulge in this dessert and enjoy!

How to Bake Flan:

• Preheat oven to 325 F or 162 degree C.
• Pour the flan mixture into caramel lined ramekins or bowls.
• Cover the ramekins with aluminum foil.
• Place the ramekins on a large glass baking dish filled with 1-2 inches of hot water.
• Bake for 45 minutes in the hot water bath.
• Run a sharp knife through the center of the flan, if it comes out clean it’s ready, else bake for some more time.

Tips:

• Flan tastes delicious if it is chilled so don’t forget to chill it before serving.

Leftover flan can be refrigerated covered with a plastic wrap, I don’t think there will be any leftover

One of the dishes I had been wanting to try for the past 5 years was tender coconut pudding. For making this I needed fresh tender coconut, which was not available in the US. But here in my hometown tender coconut is abundant.

Tender coconut water has several health benefits. In fact it is an instant energizer. In summer, people in the tropical region depend on tender coconut water to beat the heat and to quench their thirst.

Most of the time after drinking the water, tender coconut is scooped out of the shell and eaten which has a sweet refreshing taste. You could also puree the tender coconut along with the coconut water which tastes really phenominal.

Apart from these, making pudding out of the tender coconut is also quite common. Hands down, this is my favorite pudding even though I frequently make pineapple pudding. Water from the coconut is used to melt agar-agar or china grass and the tender coconut is pureed and added to the milk and condensed milk mixture.

The tender coconut gives the pudding a remarkable taste and a delicate constituency.

Once you taste this pudding, you’ll embrace the taste forever…

Tender Coconut Pudding:

• Tender Coconut, fresh- scopped from 2 coconuts
• Tender coconut water- 1 cup, to melt agar-agar
• Agar-Agar or China Grass strands- 1/4 cup
• Milk- 2 cups
• Condensed milk- 1/2 cup or depending upon your sweet level

Preparation:

Tender Coconut

• Scoop out the tender coconut from 2 coconuts and puree it in a blender, keep aside.

• In a saucepan, pour 1 cup tender coconut water and add agar-agar to it.

• Heat the saucepan and let the agar-agar melt completely.

• In the meantime, heat milk and condensed milk in another saucepan over medium heat. Let it come to a boil.

• To the boiled milk and condensed milk, add the melted agar-agar, combine well.
• Remove from the flame and let it cool down for at least 5 minutes.
• Add the pureed tender coconut to the cooled milk mixture and mix everything well.

• Pour the mixture into a cake pan or stainless steel pan.

• Keep the pudding at first in the freezer for about 15 minutes or until it begins to set.
• After that remove the pudding from the freezer and place it in the refrigerator.

• Using a knife gently cut the pudding and serve it in dessert bowls.
• You could granish the pudding with almonds, cashew nuts etc.

Notes:

• Make sure to use tender coconut and not regular coconut.
• Add the pureed tender coconut only after the milk-condensed milk mixture cooles down, otherwise the milk will curdle.

Well, I served this for breakfast. I can explain why. Lately, my husband has been acting little weird oops not little, a little too much weird actually Every morning as soon as the alarm blares out, the first sentence that comes out of his mouth would be “Honey, could you please make me a killer breakfast?”. I am still not clear what he means by killer breakfast. But one thing was crystal clear that he was giving me signals of how tired and bored he was with the usual breakfast I serve. it’s big time I make him something different, or in his words a killer one. Hence, my search for killer breakfast had begun a few days ago.

At first, I ignored his killer breakfast request, but when I started getting this request every morning I couldn’t just ignore it. I took this as a challenge and finally made him a killer breakfast yesterday morning.

Obviously, I don’t want to spend too much time cooking in the morning as I am too lazy to cook in the morning. The main reason why I picked this recipe is that this recipe called for zero cooking time, in fact it’s baked. You just need a pack of puff pastry, whipped cream and strawberry and you could make a killer breakfast or dessert in no time.

If you have more time or if you are in a real mood to make a heavy breakfast, then you should consider making homemade buttermilk pancakes that I make often during weekends and serve this as the dessert.

Strawberry Napoleon

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry sheets, thawed at room temperature- 1
• Whipped topping or heavy cream whipped- 1 cup
• Confectioners sugar- 1/4 cup
• Milk- 1 tsp
• Strawberries sliced- 1 cup
• Semi-sweet chocolate or chips, melted- 1/4 cup

Preparation:

Baking Puff pastry sheets:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• If using frozen puff pastry sheet, thaw it at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• You could even defrost the frozen puff pastry sheets for 1- 2 minutes in a microwave, make sure not to burn the sheets or cook it.
• Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface.

• Cut into 3 equal strips or rectangle shape along the fold marks.
• Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
• Place the cut pastry sheet on the baking sheet.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

• Let it cool down.

Making sugar mixture:

• In a small bowl, stir confectioners sugar and 1 tsp milk, keep aside.

How to whip cream:

• If you are using whipping cream or heavy cream, then you need to whip the cream.
• You could use a hand whisk or electric hand mixer or even stand mixer fitted with a beater attachment to whip cream.
• Use chilled cream, chilled steel or glass bowl and chilled beaters or whisk for better results.
• Place the bowl you are using for whipping the cream and the whisk or beater in the freezer for 15 minutes before using it.
• Place the bowl with the cream in a large “ice-water bowl” so that the cream remains cold while you whip.
• Beat the cream on low speed first, then increase the speed slowly and beat the cream.
• If you are adding sugar or any other flavorings, add them while you whip it.
• Stop whipping the cream when the cream has doubled in volume and forms stiff peaks.
• Make sure not to over whip the cream as it will start to curdle and turn into butter.
• Use the whipped cream immediately, if not cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

How to melt chocolate:

• If you have a double boiler use that to melt the semi-sweet chocolate or chips.
• If you don’t have one, then half fill the saucepan with water and boil the water.
• Take a glass bowl which sits well on the saucepan, put the semi-sweet chocolate chips in it.
• Place the glass bowl with chocolate on the boiling water and keep stirring the chocolate chips.
• The chocolate will start to melt and changes into liquid.
• Remove the bowl from the water and keep aside.

How to assemble:

• Using a sharp knife, cut each of the baked pastry sheets into 2, forming a total of 6 slices.
• Take one of the puff pastry slice.
• Spread confectioners sugar mixture on the puff pastry.
• Spread 1-2 tbsp of whipped topping or cream on the puff pastry.
• Top with 3-4 strawberry slices.

• Repeat this until you make 3 puff pastry layers.

• After layering, drizzle melted chocolate on top of the puff pastry.

• With 1 puff pastry sheet you could make 2 strawberry napoleon.
• Use more of the puff pastry sheets to make more.

For me, after chocolates ice cream is the most craved pleasurable foods. When I am happy I feel like having a scoop of ice cream, when I am sad I  feel like having ice cream and even when I don’t have any special feelings going on in my mind I feel like having ice cream. Ice cream can be enjoyed regardless of any time, any place and age.

Only thing that is stopping me from having ice cream everyday is the hours of workout I have to do to burn all the fat I might gain from it. I had been looking for some ways to make healthy ice cream in my kitchen so that I can devour it without any guilt. Well, my search finally came to an end when I made this easy, healthy, home made and yet yummy ice cream. And the unbelievable part was the preparation time of this ice cream was only less than 15 minutes, obviously it takes few hours for the ice cream to set.

With only 3 main ingredients fresh strawberries, sugar and fat-free heavy cream I whipped up this healthy ice cream. Also, I added chopped pistachios for an added flavor which made this ice cream even more delectable. I could talk about this ice cream endlessly, so it’s better I stop right here and reveal the recipe.

Strawberry Pistachio Ice cream

Ingredients:

• Fresh strawberries, ripe, pureed- 1 cup
• Sugar- 1/2 cup
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp
• Heavy cream or half-half, fat free- 2 cups
• Pistachios, chopped- 1/2 cup

Preparation:

• Dice the fresh strawberries and puree them in a blender, you need 1 cup of puree.

• Pour the puree into a glass bowl.

• Stir in sugar, salt and dissolve it.

• Add vanilla extract and heavy cream, combine it using a hand mixer for two minutes.

• Cover the bowl and place it in the freezer to set for 3 hours.

• After 3 hours take the ice cream out of the freezer, at this point the middle part will be soft and the sides will be hard.

• Beat the ice cream one more time using a hand mixer for two minutes.

• Add chopped pistachios and stir into the mixture.

• Place the ice cream in the freezer until it sets for 3-4 hours.

• Use a scooper to scoop out the ice cream and serve as many scoops as you want in a bowl or sugar cone or waffle cone.

• Garnish the ice cream with pistachios, fresh chopped strawberries etc.

Tips:

• If you find it hard to scoop out the ice cream, keep the ice cream on the counter top (outside the freezer) for 5-10 minutes before serving.
• You could also microwave the ice cream for 5-10 seconds to make it soft.
• Health freaks, use fat-free heavy cream or half-half.

Another ice cream that I always make at home is Mango ice cream, once you try this ice cream you’ll make this over and over.

Note:

• Half and half is a mix of 1/2 whole milk and ½ cream. Half-and-half does not whip, but it can be used in place of whipping (heavy) cream in many recipes for less fat cooking.

It was 5 years ago when I had made my first cake with this batter, this time tried butter cupcakes with the same batter…

My mom is an awesome cook, but she never did any major baking. This was the only cake she used to make when I was young. She used to make this cake not in an oven but in a pressure cooker and surprisingly it came out pretty delicious. So when it was my turn to make cake, I didn’t go behind any new recipe but followed my own mom’s recipe. Today, just by a click many cake recipes would line up right in front of me. But I have always found a special attachment towards this cake and hence always ended up making this.

It’s been a while since I’ve baked this cake, so today I tried making cupcakes with the same butter cake batter. Just like the cake, cupcakes turned out pretty darn incredible too. This butter cupcake is super easy to make and would be perfect for any tea party.

Butter cupcake

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour – 1 1/2 cups
• Powdered sugar or granulated sugar- 1 1/2 cups
• Butter(unsalted) – 100 gm or 1/2 cup
• Eggs(white and yolk separated) at room temperature- 3 nos
• Baking powder – 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla extract- 1tsp

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar together using a hand mixer.

• Separate egg white from the egg yolk and place in separate bowls.
• Beat the egg whites and egg yolks separately with hand mixer.

• First, add the beaten egg white to the butter-sugar mixture and combine with a whisk.
• Now add the egg yolks and combine well.

• Add vanilla extract to the above mixture.

• In a bowl, mix all purpose flour and baking powder.
• Add all purpose flour/baking powder mix little by little to the wet mixture and fold it using a whisk.

• Don’t over mix the batter, fold it gently until just smooth.

• Place paper cups on the cup cake pan.
• Fill the paper cups no more than three-quaters full with the batter.

• Bake it in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a fork comes out smooth when inserted into the middle of the cupcakes.
• After the cupcakes are done, remove from the oven and let cool down.
• For a fancy look, I decorated the cupcakes with semi-sweet chocolate morsels, which will slightly melt from the heat of the cakes.

As always I was quite satisfied with the taste of these cupcakes; but I was disappointed when I saw my cupcakes come out slightly sunken on top. Seeing this, I immediately google searched for the reasons that caused this. Here is what I found:

Three main reasons for sunken cupcakes or cakes:

• Over-mixed batter.
• Too much baking powder or soda.
• Overfilled cups.

Now I know what went wrong on my side. I did two mistakes, over mixed the batter and also overfilled the cups. Next time I will fix this for sure.

Tips:

• You could use the same batter to make butter cake, pour the batter on a greased cake pan and bake it for 20-25 minutes.
• My mom makes this cake in the pressure cooker:

Pressure cooker Butter Cake

• Make the batter following the above mentioned method.
• Pour the batter on a greased cake pan.
• Place the cake pan on a cooking rack that comes with the pressure cooker or any rack or flat steel plate and keep it inside the cooker.
• Close the pressure cooker with its lid, without the sealing ring and the whistle and don’t add water into the cooker (this is not steam cooking).
• In low heat, cook the cake for about 30 minutes or until its cooked.

Yay, this is the 100th post of Cooking with Thas, let me sweeten up this post with Carrot Halwa…

Among the root vegetables, I admire carrots the most. Probably, this is the only root vegetable I don’t have to always worry about cooking or baking to perfection. Just a well washed raw carrot packed with Vitamin A makes a good snack. I wasn’t aware until recently that there are different varieties of carrots, ranging from the common orange, red, yellow, purple, white and black carrots. Oh ya, even black carrots! Even though they belong to the same family, they were originated from different countries and each of them offers different health benefits.

When grocery shopping, first thing I always pick is a bag of regular carrots and a bag of baby carrots. I have never seen any one of the carrots going wasted from my kitchen. Baby carrots, a healthy snack to munch on whenever I get the sweet craving and the regular carrots which is thrown blindly into almost any cooking pot. They will be seen in Soups, Stews, Stir fry, Salads, Fried rice, Desserts, Cakes, Smoothies, Milkshakes etc basically carrots are all over…

Last weekend, I turned my carrots into a mouth watering halwa. Carrot halwa is the most famous dessert in North India. Making carrot halwa in your kitchen is very simple and when you make it you have the control over pouring of ghee. You can decide how sweet and how much ghee your carrot halwa should have.

Here is my version of Carrot halwa, I’ve tried to reduce the amount of ghee and condensed milk. There is absolutely no precise amount while adding these, you could pour according to your desire, of course keep tasting it.

Carrot Halwa

Ingredients:

• Carrot, grated- 2 cups

• Milk- 1 cup
• Sugar- 2 tbsp
• Condensed milk, fat free- 4 tbsp, or according to your needs
• Ghee- 4 tbsp, or according to your needs.
• Cardamom powder- 1/4 tsp
• Roasted Almonds- 2tbsp
• Roasted Pistachios- 1tbsp
• Roasted Raisins- 1tbsp

Preparation:

• Roast almonds, pistachios, raisins in 2 tsp ghee and keep aside.

• In a wide non-stick pan, cook carrot along with the milk and sugar over medium heat until the raw smell of carrot goes away and it turns tender.

• When the carrot has cooked well and the milk almost evaporated, add the condensed milk and stir constantly.

• When it starts to thicken, add ghee little by little and continue to stir to avoid sticking to the bottom.

• Add cardamom powder and combine with the carrots.
• When you have added all the ghee and when the carrots start to turn light golden brown, add the roasted almonds, pistachios and raisins.

• Combine everything well and transfer the halwa to a dessert bowl.
• Press the top layer of the halwa with the back of a spoon to make it even and let cool down for sometime.

• When it has cooled down, run a sharp knife through the sides of the halwa to loosen up the sides, cover the bowl with a dessert plate and turn upside down, gently shake the bowl, set halwa would fall on the plate.

• Serve warm or you could even chill it in the refrigerator which makes it even more tastier.

Tips:

• Add condensed milk and ghee according to your needs.
• You could also add a pinch of Saffron soaked in 1 tbsp of milk to the halwa for nice aroma and color.
• You could even use baby carrots, if so you need to be careful while adding the condensed milk or sugar, as baby carrots are already sweet.